The Vancouver Canadians were looking to keep their first-half playoff hopes alive as they opened up a five-game series against the Eugene Emeralds — an affiliate of the San Diego Padres — Thursday night at Nat Bailey Stadium.

Jeremy Gabryszwski warms up in the bullpen. He would pitch 5 2/3 innings for the win, giving up two runs on seven hits and a walk with four strikeouts. His ERA "swelled" to 1.13 on the season.

A full slate of games as some Major Leaguers impressed in Minor League rehab assignments. Aaron Sanchez hit 100mph, but was overshadowed by a no-hitter. No Melky tonight, but a Sergio Santos sighting. A fair amount of prospects in action tonight and even a few encouraging performances—please do read.

You can use statistics to prove anything. 95 percent of all people know that.

Today the farm played 9 games, including a rain makeup, and a resumed game from last week.  Ryan Tepera had his best start of the year for NH.  Kyle Drabek continued to pitch well for Dunedin coming back from Tommy-John.  Lansing was no-hit by a young Seattle pitching prospect.  The DSL Blue Jays managed 22 runs with 20 hits, and 14 walks.

Doug Davis is the Blue Jays minor league field coordinator. I talked with him last week about various players in the Blue Jays system.

As this is a quiet week for the Jays it reminded me that i had taken some video of prospects when I was in Dunedin in May. I have loaded it onto YouTube and you can check it out if you would like to.

The affiliates came away with two wins out of five games on Tuesday. New Hampshire had the most impressive win of the night. Vancouver missed a chance to pull into a first-place tie in their division.

Monday night saw the affiliates win four of the seven games that were completed. Vancouver is within a game of first place as the first half of the Northwest League season enters its final week.

Today's POTD looks at the Vancouver Canadians in action against the Boise Hawks in a rematch of last year's Northwest League championship final.

David Harris leads off the third inning with a single to center field.

Today's POTD looks at the opening game of a five-game series between the Vancouver Canadians and the Boise Hawks. It was Boise's first game at Nat Bailey Stadium since the C's epic Game 1 come-from-behind victory in last year's Northwest League final.

Roving catching instructor and former Blue Jay Sal Fasano was in town to tutor the Canadians catchers.

Today the farm went 4-2, with two rainouts for Dunedin.  Ricky Romero had a fantastic start for Buffalo versus a veteran Scranton W/B lineup.  Marcus Stroman had another quality start by the books for NH in an game that went into extra innings.  DJ Davis lead the Bluefield attack in which they scored 9 runs.

It's another song in this key yeah, but this one's about me

Buffalo played a doubleheader and Kevin Pillar was hitless in both games. In total he was 0-5. The Bisons lost both ends. Joining them in the losers club were Lansing, thanks to six errors, Vancouver, who also had a key error, and the GCL Jays. JA Happ started for the GCL Jays and he made his own error leading to unearned runs against him. New Hampshire won as Deck McGuire had a decent start. Bluefield had just four hits but scored six runs and won. Adonys Cardona pitched well. Dunedin were rained out again.

I’ll lose this, I always have, I’ll always let you down

Rain kept Buffalo, New Hampshire and Bluefield off the field. Elsewhere the affiliates were 2-2. Dwight Smith hit a two run go-ahead home run in the seventh to pace Lansing to a 4-3 win. Jordan Leyland had 4 RBI's in Vancouver's 8-4 win. Dunedin were shutout despite Melky Cabrera being in the lineup. The GCL Jays were also shut out despite having one hitter with four hits and another with three.